Cultural Academia Pt. 2

cultural academia pt. 2

here’s pt. 1

This is a continuation of spreading cultural books to end eurocentrism in academia. There’s definitely more “dark academia” books that fit the aesthetic this time around! Thank you to everyone who added books in the notes of the first post- I just put all those suggestions together in this list so complete credit to everyone who made these suggestions <3

Chinese: 

Shen Congwen

Geling Yan

From Emperor to Citizen 

Life and Death in Shanghai by Niem Cheng

Jin Ping Mei by Lanling Xiaoxiao Sheng

Japanese:

No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai

Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu

Sonezaki Shinju by Chikamatsu Monzaemon

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami

Works of Oe

Tosa Nikki by Ki no Tsurayuki

Torikaebaya Monogatari 

Ise Monogatari by Ariwara  no Narihira

A Fool’s Love by Tanizaki Jun’ichiro

The Golden Death by  Tanizaki Jun’ichiro

Hell Scene

I Am a Cat by Natsume Soseki

The Strange Tale of Panorama Island by Edogawa Ranpo

The Setting Sun by Osamu Dazai

The Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima

Flower Tales by Yoshiya Nobuko

Books of Hayashi Fumiko

Books of Enchi Fumiko

The Demon’s Sermon on the Marrial Arts by Issao Chozanshi

Book of Tea by Okakura Kakuzo

Kokoro by Natsume Soseki

Fool’s Life by Ryunosuke Akutagawa

Rashomon by Ryunosuke Akutagawa

Thai:

Garin’s Uncanny Files

Irani/Persian:

Disoriental by Negar Djavadi

Mesopotamia:

The Epic of Gilgamesh

Pakistani:

Poetry of Allama Iqbal

Works of Saadat Hassan Manto

My Feudal Lordand Blasphemy by Tehmina Durrani

The Reluctant Fundmamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

Raja Gidh by Bano Qudsia

Four Tragic Romances of Punjab (Heer Ranjha, Mirza Sahiba, Sassi Punnun, and Sohni Mahiwal)

The Crow Eaters by Bapsi Sidhwa

Indian:

Ramayana by Valmiki

Nonviolent Soldier of Islam by Eknath Easwaran

The Wildlings by Nilanjana Roy

Sivagamiyin Sapatham by Kalki Krishnamurthy

Chitralekha

Chandralekha

Rabindranath Tagore’s short stories

Works of Satyajit Rai

Byomkesh Bakshi

Munshi Premchand (Godan, Gaban, Nirmala)

The River Sutra

Mehlua

(comics)

Nagraj

Chacha Choudhary

Lotpot

Champak

Nandan

Vikram Betal

(poets)

The Golden Threshold by Sarojini Naidu

Gitanjali

Works of Ruskin Bond

Mahadevi Verma

Hajari Prasad Divedi

Arabian:

Hayy Ibn Yaqzan by Ibn Tufail (he lived in Al-Andalus but was Arab I believe)

Filipino:

Works of Nick Joaquin

Smaller and Smaller Circles by F.H. Batacan

The Eight Muses of the Fall By Edgar Calabia Samar

Isabelo’s Archive by Resil B. Mojares

Noli Me Tangere by Dr. Jose Rizal 

El Filibusterismo by Dr. Jose Rizal

Indonesian:

Buru Quartet by Pramoedya Ananta Toer

Saman by Ayu Utami

The Years of the Voiceless 

Beauty is Wound by Eka Kurniawan

Man Tiger by Eka Kurniawan

(poets)

Sapardi Djoko Darmono

Chairil Anwar

Sustardji Calzoum Bachri

W.S. Rendra

Taufik Ismail 

Wiji Thukul

NH Dini 

Dee Lestari

Mira W.

Malaysian:

Garden of Evening Mists

Brazilian:

O Ateneu by Raul Pompeia

Ursula by Maria Firmino

The Hidden Cause; The Alienist by Machado de Assis (short stories)

The Sad End of Policarpo Quaresma by Lima Barreto

Barren Lives by Graciliano Ramos

Child of the Dark by Carolina Maria de Jesus

Rebellion in the Backlands by Euclides da Cunha

Macunaima by Mario de Andrade

Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado

Captain of the Sands by Jorge Amado

Auto da Compadecida by Ariano Suassuna 

City of God by Paulo Lins

Budapest by Chico Buarque

The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas by Machado de Assis

Poems by Vinicius de Moraes

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector

Antologia Poetica by Carlos Drummond de Andrade

Senhora by Jose de Alencar

Colombian:

Works of William Ospina

Chilean:

Works of Isabelle Allende

Mexican: 

Poems by Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz

Laura Esquivel

El Vampiro de la Colonia Roma by Luis Zapata Quiroz

(authors)

Gerardo Murillo

Ruben M Campos

Maria Enriqueta Camarillo de Pereya

Aura by Carlos Fuentes

El Llano by Juan Rulfo

La Casa Junto Al Rio by Elena Garro

Amparo Davila

Guadalipe Duenas

Ines Arredondo

Fransisco Tario

Max Aub

Bernado Couto Castillo

Amado Nervo

Adriana Diaz Enciso

Emiliano Gonzalez

H. Pascal (poetry of vampires and ghosts)

Tequila Gotico: Literatura Gotica en Mexico (published in magazine/good intro to gothic lit in Mexico)

Argentinian:

The Invention  of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares

The Tunnel by Ernesto Sabato

Short Stories of Jorge Luis Borges

Nigerian:

Americanah by Chimamanda Adiche

Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo 

Malian:

Fatoumata Keita

Senegalese:

Amadou Kane 

Cheik Anta Diop

Sudanese:

Season of Migration to the North

Native American:

Works of Leslie Marmon Silko

Canadian:

Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan (Ghanan-Canadian)

Washington Black by Esi Edugyan

Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese (Indigenous Canadian-Ojibwe)

Birdie by Tracie Lindberg (Indigenous Canadian-Cree)

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Mexican-Canadian)

British:

White Teeth by Zadie Smith (Jamaican-British)

American:

Works of Gwendolyn Brooks

Works of Langston Hughes

A Naked Singularity by Sergio de la Pava (Colombian-American)

Once again, if your country wasn’t included, that doesn’t mean it’s not important!! Please continue to add more books with their countries in the notes and correct me if I’ve made a mistake!!

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More Posts from Commonpage and Others

1 year ago

neocities/indie webmastery resources

since a lot of people are getting into indie web stuff nowadays, I figured I'd post my collection of webmastery resources I've accumulated here!

full list under the cut, you can also view the list and other resources on my resource page (which contains resources for other things too, not just webmastery or programming). This post will probably be updated when I find more stuff too

Font selector code HTML - the HTML portion of code I made to implement a working font selector on my website

Font selector code JavaScript - the JavaScript portion of code I made to implement a working font selector on my website

freeCodeCamp - free coding courses and certifications

The Odin Project - full stack web development curriculum, open source

Developer Roadmaps - community-made roadmaps for self-taught developers

GTmetrix - shows how fast your site loads and gives recommendations on how to improve load times

Cappuccicons - free icons, alternative to Font Awesome

XP.css - CSS framework mimicking the look of Windows XP operating systems

Indieseek.xyz - an indie web directory

Archetype - experiment with font and spacing options and see a live preview of what they'd look like on a webpage

Porkbun - cheap domain and web hosting provider with free WHOIS privacy (not having your private information publicly available and linked to your domain name which normally happens when you buy a domain unless you pay a fee) included with every domain

Whatruns - free browser extension for Firefox that tells you what a website uses to run

Inclusive Components - a blog about designing inclusive and accessible web interfaces, with example code

WAVE Web Accessibility Tool - scans a webpage and identifies potential accessibility improvements

ACA 80x15 web badge maker - make a web badge

Sadgrl's 88x31 button maker - make a button for your website

A Field Guide to Web Accessibility - an informative guide about web accessibility

Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools List - huge list of tools that assist in helping create accessible websites

SCM Music Player - customizable music player for your website

Resources - Bechnokid's resources, tutorials, and code snippets, including making an RSS feed reader for status.cafe and implementing Freezeframe JS (so animated GIFs don't play by default until hovered over or until the user clicks a button, important for accessibility)

Mobile Friendly via CSS - a tutorial by Dannarchy on making your website mobile-friendly

Website Carbon - calculates your website's carbon footprint, recommend pairing this with GTmetrix for specific recommendations as optimizing how fast your website loads will generally reduce its carbon footprint

Native Neocities Hit-Counter - a tutorial by Dannarchy on making a native Neocities hit-counter for your website

Cbox - free chatbox for your website

You Don't Need JavaScript - a collection of ways to do things typically done with JavaScript, without JavaScript

Creating your own website - a guide by 32-Bit Cafe

Zonelets - a simple, free blogging engine

Melonking's intro to the web revival - a series of blog posts on building a website for beginners

Code snippets - useful HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code snippets from Kalechips

Other people's collections of webmastery resources (not all of these are just webmastery):

sadgrl.online

Yesterlinks

Tinytools directory

32-Bit Cafe's massive resource list

awhe's cool links

30 seconds of code (free code snippets)

Milan's ultimate resource list (not just programming)

doqmeat's links

the garden of madeline's web resources page

Okay, I think that's all the links for now! If you have any questions on this stuff feel free to send me an ask btw, I'm happy to help :D


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4 years ago
(instagram: Myfairesttreasure)
(instagram: Myfairesttreasure)
(instagram: Myfairesttreasure)

(instagram: myfairesttreasure)


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2 years ago

The Last Words Of Famous Writers

When you’ve dedicated your life to words, it’s important to go out eloquently.

Ernest Hemingway: “Goodnight my kitten.” Spoken to his wife before he killed himself.

Jane Austen: “I want nothing but death.” In response to her sister, Cassandra, who was asking her if she wanted anything.

J.M Barrie: “I can’t sleep.”

L. Frank Baum: “Now I can cross the shifting sands.”

Edgar Allan Poe: “Lord help my poor soul.”

Thomas Hobbes: “I am about to take my last voyage, a great leap into the dark,”

Alfred Jarry: “I am dying…please, bring me a toothpick.”

Hunter S. Thompson: “Relax — this won’t hurt.”

Henrik Ibsen: “On the contrary!”

Anton Chekhov: “I haven’t had champagne for a long time.”

Mark Twain: “Good bye. If we meet—” Spoken to his daughter Clara.

Louisa May Alcott: “Is it not meningitis?” Alcott did not have meningitis, though she believed it to be so. She died from mercury poison.

Jean Cocteau: “Since the day of my birth, my death began its walk. It is walking towards me, without hurrying.”

Washington Irving: “I have to set my pillows one more night, when will this end already?”

Leo Tolstoy: “But the peasants…how do the peasants die?”

Hans Christian Andersen: “Don’t ask me how I am! I understand nothing more.”

Charles Dickens: “On the ground!” He suffered a stroke outside his home and was asking to be laid on the ground.

H.G. Wells: “Go away! I’m all right.” He didn’t know he was dying.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: “More light.”

W.C. Fields: “Goddamn the whole fucking world and everyone in it except you, Carlotta!” “Carlotta” was Carlotta Monti, actress and his mistress.

Voltaire: “Now, now, my good man, this is no time for making enemies.” When asked by a priest to renounce Satan.

Dylan Thomas: “I’ve had 18 straight whiskies…I think that’s the record.”

George Bernard Shaw: “Dying is easy, comedy is hard.”

Henry David Thoreau: “Moose…Indian.”

James Joyce: “Does nobody understand?”

Oscar Wilde: “Either the wallpaper goes, or I do.” 

Bob Hope: “Surprise me.” He was responding to his wife asking where he wanted to be buried.

Roald Dahl’s last words are commonly believed to be “you know, I’m not frightened. It’s just that I will miss you all so much!” which are the perfect last words. But, after he appeared to fall unconscious, a nurse injected him with morphine to ease his passing. His actual last words were a whispered “ow, fuck”

Salvador Dali hoped his last words would be “I do not believe in my death,” but instead, they were actually, “Where is my clock?”

Emily Dickinson: “I must go in, the fog is rising.”

4 years ago

dark academia literary works: a masterlist

Hello! I replied to this post on Reddit today, trying to compile all the dark academia books I could think of, and then thought that maybe all of you here might find it useful too, so here you go. It is a very, very broad list, a mix of classic and contemporary literature, and there is no set criteria besides having a dark vibe (this includes murder and crime but could just be the way it’s written as well) and portraying an academic setting, most of the time from the student’s point of view. I haven’t read all of these myself and so I can’t judge on quality, but hopefully this will inspire people to add on to it in the comments.

Here you go!

The Lessons by Naomi Alderman Truly, Devious by Maureen Johnson The Secret History, Donna Tartt If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio Maurice by E. M. Forster The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde Possession by A.S. Byatt The Truants by Kate Weinberg The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark Vicious by V. E. Schwab The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater (tangentially related) A Little Life, Hanya Yanagihara Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro The Likeness by Tana French The Rachel Papers by Martin Amis Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo (coming out tomorrow!) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman Oleanna by David Mamet Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides

Other classics that are not Dark Academia in content, but which I would include in a list of the DA canon: The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer Shakespeare’s plays (Macbeth, Hamlet are good ones to start with) A Separate Peace, John Knowles The Bacchae, Euripides Greek tragedies (a good one to start with is Antigone, very popular and staged many a time) Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman Beat generation literature Jane Austen’s books (light academia, anyone?)


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2 years ago

I’ve seen a lot of curious people wanting to dive into classical music but don’t know where to start, so I have written out a list of pieces to listen to depending on mood. I’ve only put out a few, but please add more if you want to. hope this helps y’all out. :)

stereotypical delightful classical music:

battalia a 10 in d major (biber)

brandenburg concerto no. 5

brandenburg concerto no. 3

symphony no. 45 - “farewell” (haydn)

if you need to chill:

rondo alla turca

fur elise

anitra’s dance

in the steppes of central asia (borodin) (added by viola-ology)

if you need to sleep:

moonlight sonata

swan lake

corral nocturne

sleep (eric whitacre) (added by thelonecomposer)

if you need to wake up:

morning mood

summer (from the four seasons)

buckaroo holiday (if you’ve played this in orch you might end up screaming instead of waking up joyfully)

if you are feeling very proud:

pomp and circumstance

symphony no. 9 (beethoven; this is where ode to joy came from)

1812 overture

symphony no. 5, finale (tchaikovsky) (added by viola-ology)

american (dvořák)

if you feel really excited:

hoedown (copland)

bacchanale

spring (from the four seasons) (be careful, if you listen to this too much you’ll start hating it)

la gazza ladra

death and the maiden (schubert)

if you are angry and you want to take a baseball bat and start hitting a bush:

dance of the knights (from the romeo and juliet suite by prokofiev)

winter, mvt. 1 (from the four seasons)

symphony no. 10 mvt. 2 (shostakovich)

symphony no. 5 (beethoven)

totentanz (liszt)

quartet no. 8, mvt. 2 (shostakovich) (added by viola-ology)

young person’s guide to the orchestra, fugue (britten) (added by iwillsavemyworld)

symphony no. 5 mvt. 4 (shostakovich) (added by eternal-cadenza)

marche slave (tchaikovsky) (added by eternal-cadenza)

if you want to cry for a really long time:

fantasia based on russian themes (rimsky-korsakov)

adagio for strings (barber)

violin concerto in e minor (mendelssohn)

aase’s death

andante festivo

vocalise (rachmaninoff) (added by tropicalmunchakoopas)

if you want to feel like you’re on an adventure:

an american in paris (gershwin)

if you want chills:

danse macabre

russian easter overture

egmont overture (added by shayshay526)

if you want to study:

eine kleine nachtmusik

bolero (ravel)

serenade for strings (elgar)

scheherazade (rimsky-korsakov) (added by viola-ology)

pines of rome, mvt. 4 (resphigi) (added by viola-ology)

if you really want to dance:

capriccio espagnol (rimsky-korsakov)

blue danube

le cid (massenet) (added by viola-ology)

radetzky march

if you want to start bouncing in your chair:

hopak (mussorgsky)

les toreadors (from carmen suite no.1)

if you’re about to pass out and you need energy:

hungarian dance no. 1

hungarian dance no. 5

if you want to hear suspense within music:

firebird

in the hall of the mountain king

ride of the valkyries

night on bald mountain (mussorgsky) (added by viola-ology)

if you want a jazzy/classical feel:

rhapsody in blue

jazz suite no. 2 (shostakovich) (added by eternal-cadenza)

if you want to feel emotional with no explanation:

introduction and rondo capriccioso

unfinished symphony (schubert)

symphony no. 7, allegretto (beethoven) (added by viola-ology)

canon in d (pachelbel)

if you want to sit back and have a nice cup of tea:

st. paul’s suite

concerto for two violins (vivaldi)

l’arlésienne suite

concierto de aranjuez (added by tropicalmunchakoopas)

pieces that don’t really have a valid explanation:

symphony no. 40 (mozart)

cello suite no. 1 (bach)

polovtsian dances

enigma variations (elgar) (added by viola-ology)

perpetuum mobile

moto perpetuo (paganini)

pieces that just sound really cool:

scherzo tarantelle

dance of the goblins

caprice no. 24 (paganini)

new world symphony, allegro con fuoco (dvorak) (added by viola-ology​)

le tombeau de couperin (added by tropicalmunchakoopas)

carnival of the animals (added by shadowraven45662)

if you feel like listening to concertos all day (I do not recommend doing that):

concerto for two violins (bach)

concerto for two violins (vivaldi)

violin concerto in a minor (vivaldi)

violin concerto (tchaikovsky) (added by iwillsavemyworld)

violin concerto in d minor (sibelius) (added by eternal-cadenza)

cello concerto in c (haydn)

piano concerto, mvt. 1 (pierne) (added by iwillsavemyworld)

harp concerto in E-flat major, mvt. 1 (added by iwillsavemyworld)

and if you really just hate classical music in general:

4′33″ (cage)

a lot of these pieces apply in multiple categories, but I sorted them by which I think they match the most. have fun exploring classical music!

also, thank you to viola-ology, iwillsavemyworld, shayshay526, eternal-cadenza, tropicalmunchakoopas, shadowraven45662, and thelonecomposer for adding on! if you would like to add on your own suggestions, please reblog and add on or message me so I can give you credit for the suggestion!


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2 years ago
This Is Part 1 Of A Few On Dystopia That I’ll Be Publishing Every Monday because I Find It Incredibly
This Is Part 1 Of A Few On Dystopia That I’ll Be Publishing Every Monday because I Find It Incredibly
This Is Part 1 Of A Few On Dystopia That I’ll Be Publishing Every Monday because I Find It Incredibly
This Is Part 1 Of A Few On Dystopia That I’ll Be Publishing Every Monday because I Find It Incredibly
This Is Part 1 Of A Few On Dystopia That I’ll Be Publishing Every Monday because I Find It Incredibly
This Is Part 1 Of A Few On Dystopia That I’ll Be Publishing Every Monday because I Find It Incredibly

This is part 1 of a few on dystopia that I’ll be publishing every Monday because I find it incredibly interesting that we are so fascinated by societies that are going horribly wrong.


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2 years ago

Italian vocabularies list - (3)

Vocabularies:

#55daysofvocabulary

Jewellery

Love

Grain

Forest

Kitchen | Kitchen 2

Family | family 2

Make up

Clothing

Computer activity

Musical instrument

Wedding

Tableware

Easter

Spring

Favorite dish

Friendship

Pets

Bedroom

Outdoor activities

Breakfast

Bevarage

Night out

Crafting    

Christmas

Lunch

Accessories

Body

Book genre

Birthday

Summer

Beach

Dinner

Meat    

Film genre

Holiday

Vegetarian Food

Work

Hair cut

Living room

Dairy

School

Autumn

Bakery

Cutlery

City buildings

Electronic device

Bathroom  

Fish

Winter

Vegetables

Board games

Garden

Fruit

Decoration

Take away food

Animals & Plants:

Animali | More

Cane & Gatto

Giardini, Orti, Fiori, Piante

Uccelli

Curiosities:

– Piemontese / Inglese –

Abbreviations/Acronyms

Basta!

Che noia!

Ho fame

I’m sorry

sbucciare, sgusciare, pelare

Ho sonno | Buonanotte/ Sleep

Tumblr Terms | Tumblr dashboard | Social media

Opposites words + drawings

What do you do? (FARE expressions)

Random Vocabs -> FR/ES/EN/IT: uno | due | -> FR/EN/IT: uno -> IT: uno

Food:

Cibi & Bevande | Dolci

Caffè

Colazione / Breakfast

Cooking/Baking | More

Pasti / Meals

Holidays:

Amore / San Valentino | direct approach slang words

Carnevale

Christmas Vocabulary | NYE

Halloween | Ognissanti (1st/2nd of November)

Pasqua/Easter

People & Needs:

Appoinments/Invitations

Body | from head to shoulders | from shoulders to belly | from belly to feet

Describing people (physical + feelings + emotions)

Clothes

Complimenting

Emergenze (Emergencies)

Endearment words | Pet names | Ti amo VS Ti voglio bene VS Mi piaci

Hairdresser / Parrucchiere

Introduce yourself

Lgbtqa Vocabulary | Lgbt+ | non binary (writing)

People

Period

Pick up lines

Primo Soccorso / Medical Vocab | Medical vocab II | Medical Vocab III

Refugees | Phrasebook for refugees

Places:

A casa

Al cinema

Al mare / In spiaggia

Al ristorante

Countries (countryside + Nations)

Directions/Ways/Streets (Tourism/Lost in a town)

Dove?

Fly to Italy

Geografia + Astronomia

In città

In montagna

Libreria / Biblioteca

Negozi (shops)

Ocean

Places

Scuola

Working at the office

Random Stuff:

Adjectives

Appliances (kitchen)

Arte /Art

Astrology | Space | Astrologists and Tarot readers

Colori | Colors things

Careers

Driving-related

Emotions

Fantasy (genre)

Farm Words (ENG; FRA; ITA)

Free time | Hobbies

Internet

Math (video + vocabs)

Make up

Musical instruments | Music

Nautical terms

News

Quando? | Che giorno è oggi?

Phone related

Politics

Positive Vibes

Scrittura (writing)

Speaking / Writing

Sport | Football (World Cup)

Squid Game

Things you do in the morning

Tourism and travels

Verbi

War / Ukraine’s invasion

Seasons / Weather:

Autunno | p2

Che tempo fa?

Cold/Freddo | How to say the weather is crazy cold

Estate | How to say the weather is crazy hot

Winter Vocabulary

Oggi piove | Rain

Natural disasters

Reaction words


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1 year ago

THE ILIAD: FOR DUMMIES ☀️ MASTERPOST

just kidding you're not a dummy, you're some hot stuff right there! i will be going through the entire iliad and giving you a general overview, some interesting plot points, additional context, and some other analysis tools to better help you understand the epic!

This post will serve as a table of contents (at the end) to my Iliad posts and a general overview that I will be constantly updating! I am using the Richmond Lattimore translation of the Iliad, alongside my companion book by Malcom M. Wilcock

THE ILIAD: FOR DUMMIES ☀️ MASTERPOST

Before we get into analyzing the actual Iliad, we need to get into some essential questions and context about the book

WHAT IS THE ILIAD:

The Iliad was written by Homer (this is actually debated but we can get into that later) around 750 and 550 B.C.E.

At its core, the story is about heros and humans. It's an Iron Age poem about an event, the Trojan War, that was supposed to have taken place in the Bronze age. The Iliad is considered to be a poem comprised of multiple books, 24 to be exact

This story is only a few days of the tenth and final year of the Greek siege against the city of Troy- this means it relies on the audience already knowing most of the basic details about the Trojan war and the gods themselves (don't sorry, I will provide this for you as we go along)

WHO IS HOMER:

The age old question: who the fuck is Homer?

Literally nothing is known about this dude except that he wrote (or was credited with writing) the Odyssey and the Iliad

People have referenced his writings for EONS. Archilochus, Alcman, Tyrtaeus, Callinus, and even Sappho have referenced the poems of Homer in their own works. These also were popular in fine art in the late 7th century B.C.E.

There is a general consensus that Homer was from Ionia- a territory in western Anatolia or modern day Turkey that was populated by Greeks who spoke the Ionian dialect, aka the birthplace of Greek philosophy. Want more info on Ionia? Click Here!

His descendants were called the Homerids/Homeridae

There is scholarly debate on if he even wrote both the Iliad and the Odyssey, or if he only wrote one, etc etc etc. This is due to some very specific differences in the structure of the words used (like the use of short vowels, and the seemingly unimportant semivowel of the digamma being missing from the epics...yeah it's a lot)

The poems were reproduced ORALLY. This means that the poems were passed down by word of mouth, which if I were to sit and listen to this entire book via a guy singing at me...idk man I think I would leave

All of this to say, we really don't know who Homer is. There's a lot more information about what he could have looked like, if he really did write the Iliad, and a million other things, but I've already talked your ear off and we haven't even gotten into the book yet. If you want more information about Homer, check out my sources at the end of the post!

WAS THE CITY OF TROY REAL:

Yeah. There were nine layers exposed at the site of where Troy was expected to be, and nearly fifty sublayers at the mound of Hisarlik

Troy was a vassal state: meaning it had an obligation to a superior state, which happened to be the Hittite Empire

Troy had a lot more allies than original fighters in the city, meaning they had many language barriers- making the army harder to control than the unified Greek enemy.

THE STYLE OF THE ILIAD:

Cause - Effect - Solution

The poem is concluded with a mirror image of its beginning: an old man ventures to the camp of his enemy in order to ransom his child

The poem foreshadows the death of Achilles in MULTIPLE passages! He knows he is destined to die young if he fights at Troy, and the demise of his lover (don't fight me on this) Patroclus gives us an even more extended foreshadowing of the grief that is to come

When Achilles dies, Thetis (his mom) takes his body from the pyre and takes him to a place called the White Island. It's not clear whether he is immortalized BUT the reference to Achilles funeral in the Odyssey states that Achilles is cremated and his bones are placed in a golden urn along those of Patroclus, and the urn is entombed under a prominent mound (tsoa fans...you're welcome)

This isn't really necessary knowledge but moreso something I think is cool: the backstory from the Iliad of an abducted bride also appears in the Sanskirt epic Ramayana (circa 4th century B.C.E.)

okay now here is the ACTUAL important stuff

Humanity is the center of the universe in the Iliad. Humans motivations and concerns generate action in the poem, while the gods are often reduced to the role of enablers or spectators

The style of the poem collaborates with the vision that the speciousness of this epic means that every thought and gesture, spear cast and threat, intimate conversation and lament CAN be recorded. It gives a consciousness behind the demands of the iliad that these interactions MUST be recorded, this attention to detail is another way of showing centrality and the worth of the human experience (Greek OR Trojan)

The Iliad is ultimately a poem about death, the chief elements that distinguish the mortals from gods are: Death shadows every action, and death is neither abhorred nor celebrated. Instead it crystalizes by means of this one theme, death in battle, the essence of what it means to be human (Life is a struggle each person will always lose, the question is how one acts with that knowledge)

Modern readers and analysis blogs will state that one's inner spirit is somehow the "real" self, however the Iliad assumes the opposite: The psykhai (soul, spirits) of dying heroes fly off to Hades while their autous ("selves") are left behind in the form of dead bodies

Glory is INCREDIBLY important in the iliad, why? If mortals could live forever (like gods) then glory would be useless. It's a commodity to be exchanged, and because of this it has an economic and symbolic reality

Companionship is incredibly important

Pity is also very important, it's the concluding note of the poem. Even the gods feel pity

THE GODS AND THE ILIAD:

The Iliad gains depth by the divine dimension shedding glory on the humans at Troy. The gods are so intensely concerned with warriors and their fates which elevates the mortals to a special plane

Mortals are only separated from gods because they grow old and die

The symbiotic bond of gods and mortals is always see-sawing between adoration and antagonism

Humans who get too close to the gods risk being struck down, case in point, Achilles. He's young, well-made, he's a warrior but also a singer/musician (the only hero to be seen doing such a thing), he looks and acts like Apollo. THEREFORE...it's no coincidence that Apollo is ultimately the god who slays Achilles, just as he did Patroclus

Poetry supplemented or even guided ancient Greek religious interpretation much more than the activity of priests due to the lack of any official religious text. This gave ancient Hellenism a very fluid nature

This was a long post, and it's only the first of many! I will continuously update this with more sources about the Iliad and answer any FAQs that come up! I love classic literature, and as a STEM student I need to entertain my passion somehow lol. There is a table of contents at the top of the post, as well as right here. This will be updated for each book of the Iliad I write about, as well as any supplemental posts I make about certain topics and themes as I go along. I am putting a LOT of work into this series of posts, so let me know your thoughts or anything you'd like me to change/add/etc! Happy reading!

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

(This is empty because this is the only post...more posts coming soon)

Sources/Citations/Additional Material

Homer- Britannica

Homerids- Britannica

Who Is Homer- The British Museum (fuck the British Museum)

Ionia Information- World Encyclopedia

The Hittites- Britannica

Ramayana Overview- British Library

Overview of Greek Mythology- Theoi

The Iliad- Overview via Britannica

Thetis- World Encyclopedia


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4 years ago
This Is A Compiled List Of Some Of My Favorite Pieces Of Short Horror Fiction, Ranging From Classics

This is a compiled list of some of my favorite pieces of short horror fiction, ranging from classics to modern-day horror, and includes links to where the full story can be read for free. Please be aware that any of these stories may contain subject matter you find disturbing, offensive, or otherwise distressing. Exercise caution when reading. Image art is from Scarecrow: Year One.

PSYCHOLOGICAL: tense, dread-inducing horror that preys upon the human psyche and aims to frighten on a mental or emotional level. 

“The Frolic” by Thomas Ligotti, 1989

“Button, Button” by Richard Matheson, 1970

“89.1 FM” by Jimmy Juliano, 2015

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1892

“Death at 421 Stockholm Street“ by C.K. Walker, 2016

“The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin, 1973

“An Empty Prison” by Matt Dymerski, 2018

“A Suspicious Gift” by Algernon Blackwood, 1906

CURSED: stories concerning characters afflicted with a curse, either by procuring a plagued object or as punishment for their own nefarious actions.

“How Spoilers Bleed” by Clive Barker, 1991

“A Warning to the Curious” by M.R. James, 1925

“each thing i show you is a piece of my death” by Stephen J. Barringer and Gemma Files, 2010

“The Road Virus Heads North” by Stephen King, 1999

“Ring Once for Death” by Robert Arthur, 1954

“The Mary Hillenbrand Cassette“ by Jimmy Juliano, 2016

“The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs, 1902

MONSTERS: tales of ghouls, creeps, and everything in between.

“The Curse of Yig” by H.P. Lovecraft and Zealia Bishop, 1929 

“The Oddkids” by S.M. Piper, 2015

“Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” by Richard Matheson

“The Graveyard Rats” by Henry Kuttner, 1936

“Tall Man” by C.K. Walker, 2016 

“The Quest for Blank Claveringi“ by Patricia Highsmith, 1967

“The Showers” by Dylan Sindelar, 2012

CLASSICS: terrifying fiction written by innovators of literary horror. 

“The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, 1843

“The Interlopers” by Saki, 1919 

“The Statement of Randolph Carter“ by H.P. Lovecraft, 1920

“The Damned Thing” by Ambrose Pierce, 1893

“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving, 1820 

“August Heat” by W.F. Harvey, 1910

“The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe, 1843

SUPERNATURAL: stories varying from spooky to sober, featuring lurking specters, wandering souls, and those haunted by ghosts and grief. 

“Nora’s Visitor” by Russell R. James, 2011

“The Pale Man” by Julius Long, 1934

“A Collapse of Horses” by Brian Evenson, 2013

“The Jigsaw Puzzle” by J.B. Stamper, 1977 

“The Mayor Will Make A Brief Statement and then Take Questions” by David Nickle, 2013

“The Night Wire” by H.F. Arnold, 1926 

“Postcards from Natalie” by Carrie Laben, 2016

UNSETTLING: fiction that explores particularly disturbing topics, such as mutilation, violence, and body horror. Not recommended for readers who may be offended or upset by graphic content.  

“Survivor Type” by Stephen King, 1982

“I’m On My Deathbed So I’m Coming Clean…” by M.J. Pack, 2018

“In the Hills, the Cities” by Clive Barker, 1984

“The New Fish” by T.W. Grim, 2013

“The Screwfly Solution” by Racoona Sheldon, 1977

“In the Darkness of the Fields” by Ho_Jun, 2015 

“The October Game” by Ray Bradbury, 1948

“I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” by Harlan Ellison, 1967 

HAPPY READING, HORROR FANS!


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2 years ago

winter book recommendations ❄️

Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid

The Cat Who Saved Books by Sōsuke Natsukawa

Death with Interruptions by José Saramago

After Dark by Haruki Murakami

Goodbye Tsugumi by Banana Yoshimoto

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig 

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

The Luzhin Defense by Vladimir Nabokov

The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida by Clarissa Goenawan

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Breaking Stalin’s Nose by Eugene Yelchin

buy me a coffee


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